October 2012 Prez Sez

Welcome to a new season of the SEVAS. We hope you had a great
summer wherever you spent it. Lots happened since we last
met. The NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY put out a new strategic plan. They also partnered with ConservAmerica , a leading conservative
pro-environment group, on a campaign based on common ground called
“Because Conservation Doesn’t Have a Party.” The hope is to deliver
hundreds of thousands of signatures on the American Eagle Compact to
the winners of November’s elections.

Closer to home, Volusia County decided to finally start restoring the scrub habitat to
favor Scrub Jays at the Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve and mountain
bikers using the preserve objected strenuousy and threatened to
take the county to court. Florida Audubon is partnering with
other conservation organizations to place on the ballot in 2014 a
constitutional amendment to require the State of Florida to fund a
Florida Forever program. The St John's River Water Management
District started a process of identifying whether or not its land
holdings included some not needed for the purposes for which they were
acquired and could potentially be sold off. And most recently,
the State of Florida is again trying to close access to MINWR and CANA
for a commercial spaceport.

AUDUBON'S NEW STRATEGIC PLAN

For more than a century, Audubon has been working to protect birds
and their habitat using activism, education and science including
citizen science. Now more than ever, natural habitats and open
spaces are disappearing at an unprecedented rate.

To meet today's tremendous environmental challenges and economic
realities, Audubon revisited its strategy for conservation and took a
targeted approach towards the four flyways ( Atlantic, Mississippi,
Central and Pacific) and bird species with the greatest conservation
need. They then defined the most pervasive and shared threats to
these priority birds and will focus on preserving these areas.

AMERICAN EAGLE COMPACT.

Birds do not have a political affiliation and don't have a
vote. But despite the divisiveness of the politicians in
Washington, there are large numbers ofconservative American voters who
believe in conservation and in the protection of clean air and
water.

National Audubon is partnering with ConservAmerica , a leading conservative
pro-environment group, on a campaign based on common ground called
“Because Conservation Doesn’t Have a Party.” Our hope is to deliver
hundreds of thousands of signatures on the American Eagle Compact to
the winners of November’s elections. To learn more and to sign the petition, go here.

DORIS LEEPER SPRUCE CREEK PRESERVE

This beautiful piece of natural land spans an area of 2400 acres
from I-95 to the Halifax River and though is mostly in New Smyrna
Beach, a small bit is in Port Orange. Volusia County has been under
pressure for several years by the Florida DEP to restore the scrub
habitat and started to do so in June. Then the stuff hit the
fan. People using the preserve for bike trails objected to the
removal of trees shading the trails and roads and caused a big
stir. David Hartgrove summarized the entire issue extremely well
in his Conservation Notes in the Halifax River AS newsletter in
September. With his permissionI am reproducing his article below.

FLORIDA''S WATER AND LAND LEGACY

Florida Audubon is partnering with a lot of other conservation
organizations to gather a million signatures to place the Florida Water
and Land Conservation Amendment on the November 2014 ballot.

Preservation 2000 and its follow-up Florida Forever provided hundreds
of millions of dollars per year over the last decade or so to purchase
and manage sensitive lands and protect them from unwise
development. Since 2009, these funds have been slashed by
97.5%.

The partnership is proposing that 33% of the revenues generated from
real estate documents, called doc stamps, be set aside for the
acquisition of environmentally-sensitive lands. They are asking
us to sign petitions and volunteer to get others to sign petitions to
put the proposal on the 2014 ballot. I will let you know
when the petitions are available.

SJRWMD TO LOOK AT PROPERTIES AND VALIDATE THEIR NEED

The SJRWMD started a process of identifying whether or not its land
holdings included some not needed for the purposes for which they were
acquired and could potentially be sold off. Ed Garland's article below
explains the project from their point of view. Environmentalists
and Volusia County were concerned about the transparency of the process
and the district held a couple of meetings in the county.

CLOSE ACCESS TO MINWR AND CANA FOR SPACEPORT

We litigated it in 2008, but it is back, Now it is the State
of Florida asking for it. State officials envision a new
launchpad for commercial-rocket companies and they've asked NASA to
give about 150 acres of undeveloped KSC land around Shiloh to Space
Florida, a public-private agency that wants to create the proposed
facility.

I wrote an email to Senator Bill Nelson who involved himself in the
2008 fray and asked for his help to deflect this attack on these areas
that are special to environmentalists, hunters and fishermen
alike. It is amazing that the space shuttle program is officially
over and the state cannot ask NASA for other lands within the complex
for the spaceport facility.

Even though SpaceX is the most likely candidate for the spaceport, the
company is still negotiating with other states including Texas.